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Christmas quiz

Posted on 10/12/2018

Our Christmas Quiz offers an eclectic test of knowledge of economics and business. The answers and a brief explanation of the factors at work are at the end of this note.

1. Much of the modern Christmas was created in the nineteenth century. Match the person to the Christmas innovation.a) The invention of the Christmas cracker in 1848b) The first commercial Christmas cards in 1843c) The Christmas tree’s arrival in the UK in 1800d) A Christmas Carol, written in 1843

2. Three of the following were removed from the basket of goods used to calculate the UK consumer inflation index this year and one was added. Which were removed?a) Prepared mashed potatob) ATM chargesc) Action camerasd) Bottles of lager at a nightclube) Women’s exercise leggingsf) Pork pies

3. According to Good Housekeeping magazine the cost of a Christmas dinner, including turkey, vegetables, mince pies, Christmas pudding, cake and brandy butter, has risen by 25% in the last two years. Rising prices reflect the effects of a weaker pound, increased feed cost for turkeys and depressed crop yields because of the hot summer. With careful shopping around it is possible to cut costs. The cheapest supermarket for all the required items, Lidl is 40% cheaper than the most expensive Waitrose. If you bought each item at the supermarket with the lowest price, how much would the meal cost for a family of eight?a) £58.59b) £19.84c) £24.90d) £79.99

4. Which of the following institutions is most trusted by Americans? a) The armed forcesb) Congressc) The Presidentd) Small business

5. Which of the following Christmas puddings came top in a Which? magazine blind taste test this year?a) Co-op (75p per 100g)b) Harrods (£2.86 per 100g)c) Iceland (80p per 100g)d) Waitrose (£1.76 per 100g)

6. In which country did the head of state sack two senior ministers and deployed the army to shore up cashew nut prices this year?a) Boliviab) Mexicoc) Tanzaniad) Philippines

7. UBS regularly tracks prices and earnings in different parts of the world. Looking at the price of an iPhone X and average salaries, where would you need to work the fewest number of days to purchase the iPhone X?a) Zurichb) New Yorkc) Tel Avivd) Cairo

8. How likely is someone who has never used cocaine to test positive for traces of the drug on their fingertips? a) One in ten chanceb) One in fifty chancec) One in one hundred chanced) One in five hundred chance

9. Consumer technology is distracting and addictive. Some economists have suggested that the slowdown in productivity growth seen in many western countries may partly reflect a collective loss of concentration caused by consumer technologies. Match the following four activities to the amount of time they consume, in the answer options below.a) Daily social media usage by US millennials during the workdayb) Time needed to recover full attention for a demanding mental task following an interruption, such as reading emails or checking social mediac) Daily smart phone usage in the USd) Average time spent each day by Britons watching TV

i) 3.8 hoursii) 1.8 hoursiii) 25 minutesiv) 2.5 hours

10. According to the United Nations World Happiness Report which of the following was the happiest country in 2018?a) Finlandb) Chilec) New Zealandd) Germany

11. What percentage of recent graduates in the UK are working in non-graduate roles?a) 12%b) 23%c) 36%d) 49%

12. Which country held a referendum this year on subsidising farmers who let their cows’ horns grow naturally?a) Indiab) Canadac) Switzerlandd) Lesotho

Answers to the Deloitte Christmas Quiz

1. Much of the modern Christmas was created in the nineteenth century. Match the person to the Christmas innovation.

Answer:a) The invention of the Christmas cracker in 1848 – Tom Smith, a leading confectioner in Victorian England. Inspired by a trip to Paris where he saw sugared almonds wrapped in twists of paper, Smith came up with the idea of the Christmas cracker: a simple package filled with sweets that snapped when pulled apart. The sweets were replaced by small gifts and paper hats in the late Victorian period.

b) The first commercial Christmas cards in 1843 - Sir Henry Cole, prolific Victorian inventor. In 1843 Henry Cole commissioned an artist to design a card for Christmas. The illustration showed a group of people around a dinner table and a Christmas message. At one shilling each, these were pricey for ordinary Victorians and so were not immediately accessible. However the sentiment caught on and many children - Queen Victoria's included – were encouraged to make their own Christmas cards.

c) The Christmas tree’s arrival in the UK - Queen Charlotte, the German wife of George III. Prince Albert, Queen Victoria’s consort, is usually credited with introducing the Christmas tree to England in 1840. However, another German member of the British Royal family, the equally popular ‘good Queen Charlotte’, set up the first known English tree at Queen’s Lodge, Windsor, 30 years earlier, in December 1800.

d) A Christmas Carol, written in 1843 - Charles Dickens. The classic Christmas story, with its tale of a lifetime of greed and Christmas redemption, features the elderly miser Ebenezer Scrooge. First published on 19 December 1843, the first edition sold out by Christmas Eve.

2. Three of the following were removed from the basket of goods used to calculate the UK Consumer Price Index (CPI) this year and one was added. Which were removed?a) Prepared mashed potatob) ATM chargesc) Action camerasd) Bottles of lager at a nightclube) Women’s exercise leggingsf) Pork pies

Answer: ATM charges, bottled larger at nightclubs and pork pies have been removed from the basket of goods used to calculate UK inflation. Prepared mashed potato, action cameras and women’s exercise leggings have been added. ATM charges have been dropped due to the decline in the number of cash machine terminals, due in part to rising contactless payments. Pork pies have been excluded in favour of quiches. The exclusion of bottles of larger in nightclubs reflects the decline in the number of venues across the UK. The inclusion of women’s exercise leggings and action cameras such as GoPros highlights the growing trend of healthy living and exercise. Prepared mashed potato has been added back to the CPI index almost 30 years after ‘Smash’ (a powdered product to which water was added) was dropped from the index.

3. According to Good Housekeeping magazine the cost of a Christmas dinner, including turkey, vegetables, mince pies, Christmas pudding, cake and brandy butter, has risen by 25% in the last two years. Rising prices reflect the effects of a weaker pound, increased feed cost for turkeys and depressed crop yields because of the hot summer. With careful shopping around it is possible to cut costs. The cheapest supermarket for all the required items, Lidl is 40% cheaper than the most expensive Waitrose. If you bought each item at the supermarket with the lowest price, how much would the meal cost for a family of eight?a) £58.59b) £19.84c) £24.90d) £79.99

Answer: £24.90 or £3.11 per head for a family of eight. £19.84 was the cost two years ago, in 2016, of the basket. That was the lowest price in ten years. £79.99 is the price of 75cl bottle of Bollinger La Grande Année Brut Vintage Champagne. £58.59 is the price of Tesco Finest British Free-Range Heritage Narragansett Turkey.

4. Which of the following institutions is most trusted by Americans? a) The armed forcesb) Congressc) The Presidentd) Small business

Answer: The armed forces are the most trusted institution in America according to a 2018 survey by US research firm Gallup. 74% of respondents said they had ‘a great deal’ or ‘a lot’ of confidence in the armed forces. The armed forces in the US have consistently been the most trusted institution since the survey began in 1978 but support has edged lower from 82% in 2009. Confidence in Congress is just 11%, the lowest reading for any of the 15 institutions on which respondents were quizzed. The proportion of responses expressing ‘great confidence’ in the Presidency has increased to 22%, the highest level since 2009, President Obama’s first year in office. Small business and the police are the second and third most trusted institutions.

5. Which of the following Christmas puddings came top in a Which? magazine blind taste test this year?a) Co-op (75p per 100g)b) Harrods (£2.86 per 100g)c) Iceland (80p per 100g)d) Waitrose (£1.76 per 100g)

Answer: Iceland’s offering came first in the blind taste test of twelve Christmas puddings conducted by Which?. Four baking experts scored the Iceland pudding at 75%, due to its rich, boozy flavours and abundance of nuts. The Co-Op ‘irresistible’ pudding came in second and, at 75p per 100g, it was also the cheapest pudding tested. Harrods’s pudding was third despite it being the most expensive of the twelve. Waitrose was one of the lowest-ranked puddings with the experts remarking that it looked “unpleasantly oily”.

6. In which country did the head of state sack two senior ministers and deployed the army to shore up cashew nut prices this year?a) Boliviab) Mexicoc) Tanzaniad) Philippines

Answer: Tanzania. Cashew nuts are Tanzania’s most valuable export crop and farmers had refused to sell their harvest to private traders saying that offered prices were too low. In 2013, a similar crisis had led to riots by cashew farmers. Tanzanian president John Magufuli responded to the latest crisis by sacking his agriculture and trade ministers and deploying the armed forces to purchase the crop at a higher price than offered by traders.

7. UBS regularly tracks prices and earnings in different parts of the world. Looking at the price of an iPhone X and average salaries, where would you need to work the fewest number of days to purchase the iPhone X?a) Zurichb) New Yorkc) Tel Avivd) Cairo

Answer: A typical worker in Zurich would need to work for 4.7 days to buy the new iPhone X due to relatively high wages and the strong Swiss franc. A worker in Cairo would need to work for 133.3 days to purchase the X. In New York it would require 6.7 working days and 12.7 in Tel Aviv. The length of time it takes to buy an iPhone in Cairo is reflective of a weak currency and low wages. The Egyptian pound has fallen by over 50% against the dollar since the beginning of 2016. It takes 11.3 working days to buy the iPhone X in London.

8. How likely is someone who has never used cocaine to test positive for traces of the drug on their fingertips?a) One in ten chanceb) One in fifty chancec) One in one hundred chanced) One in five hundred chance

Answer: One in ten people who have never used cocaine have traces of it on their hands, according to research from the University of Surrey. More than 10% of 50 volunteers who’d never taken the drug had traces on their fingertips. A large number of people who are not drug users pick up traces of cocaine from handling bank notes. An overwhelming majority of bank notes pick up traces of cocaine after a few weeks in circulation. In 2015, a bus driver won an unfair dismissal claim after being fired for failing a drugs test as a result of handling bank notes contaminated with cocaine.

9. Consumer technology is distracting and addictive. Some economists have suggested that the slowdown in productivity growth seen in many western countries may partly reflect a collection loss of concentration caused by consumer technologies. Match the activities to the amount of time they consume.

Answer:a) Daily social media usage by US millennials during the workday - 1.8 hours (US Chamber of Commerce Foundation Millennial Generation Research Review)b) Time needed to recover full attention for a demanding mental task following an interruption, such as reading emails or checking social media – 25 minutes (The Cost of Interrupted Work: More Speed and Stress, University of California at Irvine)c) Daily smart phone usage in the US – 2.5 hours (dscout research)d) Average time spent by Britons watching TV – 3.8 hours (survey for PerfectHome)Research carried out at the University of London confirms how interruptions weaken the quality of our thinking. Eighty volunteers were asked to carry out problem solving tasks, firstly in a quiet environment and then while being bombarded with new emails and phone calls. Although they were told not to respond to any messages, researchers found that their attention was significantly disturbed. The average IQ was reduced by ten points, double the amount seen in studies involving cannabis users. Men were twice as distracted as women. (An IQ between 90 and 110 is considered average. Over 120 is seen as being ‘superior’).

10. According to the United Nations World Happiness Report which of the following was the happiest country in 2018?a) Finlandb) Chilec) New Zealandd) Germany

Answer: Finland is the happiest country in the world according to the United Nations World Happiness Report 2018. Nordic countries occupy four of the top five places, and are recognised in the report for being stable, safe and socially progressive with low levels of corruption. Norway is in second place, followed by Denmark, then Iceland and Switzerland in fifth spot. The report highlights the interesting disparity between wealth and happiness in some of the world’s richest nations, including the US. The US ranks 18th for happiness, one spot above the UK, despite them being two of the wealthiest countries in the world. Per capita wealth is just one of the six significant factors which the report says contribute to happiness: social support, life expectancy, freedom to make life choices, generosity and employment levels.

11. What percentage of recent graduates in the UK are working in non-graduate roles?a) 12%b) 23%c) 36%d) 49%

Answer: 49% of recent UK graduates were working in non-graduate roles last autumn, up from 39% in 2001, according to the latest publicly available data from the ONS. A study by the OECD found that although graduate unemployment rates in the UK are among the lowest in the world, too many graduates were in low-paid, non-graduate jobs because they lacked basic numeracy and literacy skills.

12. Which country held a referendum this year on subsidising farmers who let their cows’ horns grow naturally?a) Indiab) Canadac) Switzerlandd) Lesotho

Answer: Switzerland. Swiss farmer Armin Capaul campaigned for years to discourage the practice of farmers dehorning their cows, which makes it easier and cheaper to rear them, culminating in a national referendum this year. Supporters argue that animals should be left the way nature intended, for their wellbeing and happiness. The Swiss rejected the proposal with 54% voting against.

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